//------------------------------// // Manaquire Strikes Back // Story: Human Nature // by Dragonfire2lm //------------------------------// Previously "This is all a nightmare!" Manaquire awoke to find himself surrounded by nothing but a vast, empty white space. He could feel something solid that resembled the ground beneath him but when he looked, there was nothing but white. It was starting to give him a migrane. "Anyone here?' he asked in mild irrataion. Just me a voice replied. "Oh joy a psychopony..." the dragon grumbled sarcastically and he heard the unmistakable sound of a facehoof. Why me.... the disembodied voice groaned. "Well for one, you are Pinkamena Diane Pie and are most commonly associated with murder" Manaquire replied. "And secondly who else but a madmare would choose to watch over the void". I really don't like you... "That makes two of us" Right..I'm sending you back, try not to destroy the world "No promises" Manaquire replied with a smirk and was answered by another facehoof. ---------------------------- Sunset gasped as air was forced into her lungs, her chest throbbed as heart started to beat and her body elt numb and heavy. she looked around and spoted something gold lying on the pavement and with a mix of fear, worry and doubt she realised it was the golden vixen. The fox's fur had lost its divine glow and six of the goddesses seven tails had vanished. She lay on the round unmoving and if it weren't for the subtle rise and fall of her chest Sunset would have thought she was dead. This realisation was followed by the fact that Sunset herself was alive. No longer was she one of the walking dead, nor was she a ghost, the pain in her chest and legs confirmed it, she was alive. It felt wrong. "What in Time's name happened here?" a new, familiar voice asked insurprise. Sunset barely managed to lift her head and saw that it was Manaquire, who was back to full glory. she tried everything she could to move, to stand even but the weight of her limbs and the constant ache she felt across her body stopped her in her tracks. "Well Manaquire, come to join the fun?" Sam sneered. ------------- The black dragon took in thescene before him as Sam gloated. His beloved Rainbow had been stripped of her power, his creator was- He looked again, the reality of what happened sent off alarm bells in his mind, Sunset was trying to move, to get up, the tired yet frustrated look on her face was evident to this. "You forcefully revived her?" Manaquire hissed. "Oh her? Why of course I did" Sam replied with a gesture to the now unconscious Sunset. "With her still alive this timeline continues to exist and my victory is secured!" "Do you have any idea what you've done?" Manaquire growled. "I performed the most heinous act in history, not even you messed with the realm of the dead" Sam gloated. Their conversation was interputed by the sound of hooves pounding against cobblestone as six famiiar ponies galloped towards them. "Ah Miss Sparkle. I'm glad you and your friends are here, I always like having an audience" Manaquire said to the group of ponies as they came to a stop behind him. "Audience for what?" Twilight asked. The ear to ear grin Manaquire had when he turned to face her sent shivers down the spines of the ponies present. the calm yet almost mad glint in his eyes soldified their fear. "I little thing I like to call judgement" Manaquire replied calmly. Warning Horror up ahead In an instant Sam and Auraka found themselves peshed against a slab of granite by manauire's telekinesis as the dragon in question walked towards them with the joker-esque smile plastered to his face. "You can't kill us! You know you can't" Sam roared the trace of fear evident in his voice. "Who says i'm going to kill you?" Manaquire retorted. "When I can do so much worse!". He burst into a fit of maniacal laughter as Auraka began to struggle against the psychic bonds.Noticing this Manaquire dragged her over to him with a mere thought, the avaion like dragoness stiffened as the madman examined her with a critical eye. "Hm I can't kill you...."he said to himself in mild annoyance but his face brightened as he had an idea. "I know, since you and your little gang of renegades tried to take everything I hold dear, why not return the faviour!" "No..please no..." Auraka whimpered, all signs of confidence and bravdo gone from the dragonesses demeanour. "Please have mercy!" "Manaquire you've frightened her enough, Stop this isn't funny anymore!" Twilight shouted. "Yeah why are you doing this?" Rainbow Dash asked.. "Because she tried to break me" He replied in a sickly sweet voice. "She tried to destroy everything that matters to me, my home, my friends, my family and even my creator..." He explained and then turned to Auraka with a frown. "You really shouldn't have done that" he said to her. There was a sickening snap of breaking bone as the delicate frame of Auraka's wings were shattered, pristine white feathers became stained with blood and fragments of yellow-white bone covered in blood and gristle poked out from key joints that were disfigured and bent in unnatural ways. This was followed in quicj succession by Manaquire grabbing her by the necj with one hand and using the other to gain a firm graps of the unicorn horn on her forhead. There was time to scream or uter another plea for help as in one quick motion the black dragon ripped the horn off her head and left nothing but a white stump that wasslowly leaking blood from where the nerve cluster at the base had been severed. Auraka was nothing more than a whimpering, incomprehensible mess as her tortuer threw her horn aside and reached towards her chest cavity. The arm went through her via the use of some sort of phasing spell and she gasped as a twisting sensation filed her gut and her body felt likeit was going to rip apart. Manaquire pulled his arm back out, in his hand he held a large blue gem covered in a thin membrane of tissue and blood vessels. it pulsed softly al most like a heart beat. He tossed that too over his shoulder and it landed with a thud by the horn. With a dis pleased look he let his victim fall to the ground and rudely kicked her aside. With new found glee he walked over to Sam who was still pinned to the rock. "No..No NO!" thw wolf creid as the dragon got neaer and all attempts to escape failed utterly. "Oh Yes Samuel Lupus Tempus...I have something specail planned for you" "No Brother help me!" sam yelled in a painicked effort to escape whatever pain was about to head his way. "Oh look Sam you're in trouble again and this time big brother isn't here to save you" Manaquire said. "Speaking of your brother he's a fan of old peace keeping sayings, I think you them yes?" Without warning Manaquire lunged forward and tore out the wolf's eyes. "See no evil" With a swift Yank to either sides of his head Sam's ears were torn clean off, blood streaking down the wolf's face as he screamed. "Hear no evil" Sam attempt to cry out to say or do anything that would stop the madnes. Manaquire's claws sliced his throat open and pulled out the suffering canines vocal cords before he could react. "And Speak no evil" The dragon finished, healed up he throat wound and tossed the wolf aside in same way he did with Auraka. With a wave of his hand his victims vanished to some unknown corner of the universe. Heturned to the six ponies that witnessed the events and in a red flash all traces of the torture session was wiped from their minds and all evidence of what had transpired disappeared from the area. Horror Over